More evidence sought in case of 2 fired state workers

Thursday

May 17, 2007 at 12:01 AMMay 17, 2007 at 5:23 PM

SPRINGFIELD -- Two state government workers will have to continue to wait to find out if they will be reinstated to their jobs, afetr the Illinois Civil Service Commission voted Thursday to remand the case for additional evidence.

Doug Finke

By DOUG FINKE

STATE CAPITOL BUREAU

SPRINGFIELD -- Dawn DeFraties and Michael Casey will have to continue to wait to find out if they will be reinstated to their state jobs.

The Illinois Civil Service Commission voted Thursday to remand the case for additional evidence.

The vote was despite an administrative law judge’s recommendation earlier this month that the two should not have been fired for allegedly manipulating the state hiring process to give favored treatment to politically connected applicants. The judge said the evidence warranted only a 14-day suspension for the two.

The five-member commission met behind closed doors for nearly three hours before taking the unanimous vote. No public discussion took place before the vote, and commission chairman Chris Kolker refused to answer questions afterward.

“At this point, giving the state a second bite at the apple seems inherently unfair, and we will be reviewing what options we have to address the situation,” said Carl Draper, the attorney for Casey and DeFraties. “The state rested. It said it put on all of the evidence that it was going to put on.”

Attorneys for the state called more than a dozen witnesses during on-and-off hearings that stretched over nearly two months. On March 23, they called their final two witnesses and announced they’d finished presenting their evidence.

Draper called no witnesses, saying it wasn’t necessary because the state didn’t prove its case.

Draper said Thursday he has no idea what additional evidence the commission expects to receive or how the case will proceed. That will be determined by Administrative Law Judge Anthony Dos Santos, who presided over the hearing conducted for DeFraties and Casey.

“Perhaps he’ll share with us some insight about what happened behind closed doors during this proceeding we weren’t privy to,” Draper said.

Dos Santos also declined to answer questions after the commission meeting.

“In all of the years I’ve dealt with state government, I’ve never seen the Civil Service Commission remand a case for additional evidence,” Draper said. “We have serious questions about the authority of that kind of order. We may well be looking at addressing what just happened in the courts.”

The commission’s executive director, Dan Stralka, said the move is not unprecedented.

“I recall one case where it happened twice,” Stralka said. “It’s not that unusual.”

He added that personnel rules do not stipulate how quickly the additional evidence must be accumulated.

DeFraties and Casey worked in the personnel bureau at the state Department of Central Management Services in Springfield from 2003 to 2005. DeFraties was a deputy director, and Casey was her assistant.

Among other things, the two were accused of giving “A” grades to unqualified applicants, changing grades, grading some applications ahead of others to give them a hiring advantage, and entering some applications into state computers ahead of others. They also were charged with insubordination for refusing to cooperate with an investigation into their activities by Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s office.

Dos Santos recommended May 4 that most of the charges be dismissed, including insubordination, giving undeserved grades and ordering that some applicants be quickly entered into state computers. He also said the insubordination charge should be dismissed because DeFraties and Casey weren’t told they could be fired if they did not cooperate in the governor’s office’s investigation. Both did cooperate in a probe launched by the state’s Office of Executive Inspector General, the judge noted.

However, Dos Santos said the evidence did show that DeFraties and Casey allowed some clout-heavy applications to be graded ahead of others in violation of state rules and that they did not record applications that got less than an “A” grade. He added that favoritism toward some applications existed at CMS before DeFraties and Casey started worked there, but they should have done more to stop the practice.

In May 2006, the Blagojevich administration announced the two had been fired as part of the administration’s efforts to root out corruption. However, Dos Santos said his review of the evidence supported only a 14-day suspension, not termination.

Draper said neither of his clients have had permanent jobs since they were fired.